Mika's eyes are on gold in Noumea

Alison King | 12th March 2010

WAKA AMA

Mika Tuilave-Charteris has a lot of confidence for someone so young.

The 18-year-old from Okere Falls is among 11 Rotorua waka ama paddlers setting their sights on gold at this year's World Sprint Championships.

The student qualified for the junior women's crew (J19) of six at January's national tournament and has also been selected to compete in the tough single W1 class.

Add to that a round of competition in the W12 double-hulled class and you can tell she has a lot of work on her hands.

"I think I can do well, I just have to focus, do lots of hard training and motivate myself," Mika said. "I was rapt to get into the world squad. This was just my second nationals and I've only been doing waka ama for a few years. I started racing competitively at the start of last year.

"I was quite nervous, but I'd had lots of training through the holidays and my coach pushed me really hard."

The world championships take place in Noumea in May, but the Aotearoa New Zealand squad has already been preparing for 12 months.

After the nationals they had some time off, but with weekly waka ama competitions now taking place the preparations are quickly ramping up.

Mika will be joined by Waiariki Sports Academy student Dale Thomas in the J19 crew.

Also competing are Corey Tronel and Ropata Kautai in the Master Men waka, Renee MacDonald, Kimmy Chater, Kelley Korau, Maylene Papuni, Liz Savage and Carol Turner in the Master Women and George Thomas in the Senior Master Men.

Bay of Plenty Regional co-ordinator for the junior squad and co-ordinator for the national men's squad, Hellen Messenger said the crews are determined to return with golds. "Rotorua is a very strong hub for waka ama and it's really exciting to watch.

"They're all geared up and doing all they can to bring back gold. They all want to do better than last time and to create unity within the New Zealand squad. We're always trying to beat the Tahitians as waka ama is their national sport, I think we've got a good chance this year."

About 30 countries compete in the biennial world championships, which were last held in Sacramento, United States, in 2008.

As well as getting together to paddle as a crew most weekends - Lake Okareka is the Rotorua club headquarters - crew members also cross train by swimming, running, weight-training and doing pilates to gain core strength.

With three to four races in each division and some crews competing in more than one division it means a lot of hard work.

Races include 500m, 1500, a double-hulled (two boats tied together) 500m and individual 500m.

"It's really exciting to watch all that power," Messenger said.